Text and multimedia messaging have become highly popular modes of communication among users of telecommunications devices. The most popular type of messaging, Short Message Service or “SMS” messaging, is a text messaging service of phone, Internet, or mobile telecommunications systems, using standardized communications protocols that allow the exchange of short text messages between fixed line or mobile telecommunications devices. Mobile telecommunications device users may create and transmit short text messages addressed to the phone number of the destination mobile telecommunications device. SMS standards were defined in 1985 as part of the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) series of standards, as a means of sending messages of up to 160 characters to and from GSM mobile handsets. Text messaging is now evolving into new protocols, including protocols based on IP Multimedia Subsystem or IMS technology.
With the growth in its popularity, text messaging has also become a useful communications mode for marketing. Marketers may create campaigns involving the creation and distribution of messages to multiple receiving devices. In many cases, such marketers don't use traditional telephone numbers for messages to and from receiving devices, but instead use short codes. Short codes are special numbers, significantly shorter than full telephone numbers, which can be used to address text or multimedia messages to and from telecommunications devices. Short codes are designed to be easier to read and remember than normal telephone numbers. Short codes may be used for a wide variety of campaigns, such as voting, ordering pizza or ringtones, competing for free concert tickets, and making charity donations. Messages sent to a short code can also be billed at a higher rate than standard messages, and may be used by a customer to subscribe to a recurring monthly service that will be added to the customer's mobile phone bill until the user texts, for example, the word “STOP” to terminate the service.
Because short codes are typically shorter than telephone numbers, however, there are a limited number of possible short codes. In the United States, short codes are typically five and six digits long and are made available to wireless telecommunications carriers and other entities through the Common Short Code Administration under authority of the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association. Short codes can be leased at the rate of $1000 a month for a selected code or $500 for a random code from CSCA. Users of short codes can thus compile their own pools of leased short codes which they can use and reuse over the lifetime of the short code leases.
Wireless carriers and other entities that use short codes face many obstacles, due in part to the limited number of available short codes and to the difficulty in managing short code pools. Many such entities manage their short codes manually. Manual management may result in a variety of errors that negatively impact customer experience. For example, a short code used in connection with a short term promotion may be reassigned to a new promotion, resulting in receipt of messages from consumers who are replying to the previous campaign messaging. Manual management is also time consuming and expensive. In some instances, customers receiving short code messages may view them as spam, resulting in the customers placing the short code on a blacklist and thereby reducing the number of customers who receive future messages from that short code. In other instances, it is difficult to track responses to short code messages.